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Wednesday morning more than 1.3 million electric power customers across Texas remain without power during the coldest winter storm in decades. Gov. Greg Abbott put all of Texas’ 254 counties under a disaster declaration as the state has been hammered with a series of major and historic winter storms. The reasons for the collapse of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid are still being debated, and it’s certain that there is more than one cause and more information will come out.But one of the most contested issues is the role wind generation has played. Prior to the onset...

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is getting a lot of attention as millions of Texans remain without power while the state faces extreme cold. Meanwhile, ERCOT's recently elected chair and vice chair for the board of directors aren't feeling the chill like we are.

A Public Utility Commission order stated that ERCOT should correct any past prices to reflect the current shortage of energy... TEXAS, USA — With nearly 4 million Texans in need of power amid the winter storm that struck the state, demand for energy is exceptionally high. The demand has exceeded the supply that the state has to offer. As a result, the Public Utility Commission of Texas held an emergency meeting on Monday where officials introduced an order that would adjust energy prices. The order said in part, "Energy prices should reflect scarcity of the supply. If customer load is...

Hey, some of you probably thought I was dead. Well, sorry, Democrats, no such luck. Didn’t have another heart event, didn’t contract the ‘rona, the website isn’t down again. So yay on all of that. What did happen, though, is we have no power at our home. Haven’t had any since 6:00 a.m. Monday, and it now looks like we won’t have any again until Friday at the earliest. In case you hadn’t heard, the entire state of Texas looks an awful lot like Alaska right now. Ok, well, West Texas looks more like South Dakota, but you get the...

The spot price of wholesale electricity on the Texas power grid spiked more than 10,000% on Monday amid a deep freeze across the state and rolling outages among power producers, according to data on the grid operator’s website. Real-time wholesale market prices on the power grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) were more than $9,000 per megawatt hour late Monday morning, compared with pre-storm prices of less than $50 per megawatt hour, according to ERCOT data.. The surge reflects the real-time megawatt hour price of electricity and the cost of congestion and losses at different points...

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas emphasized the need for people to reduce energy use... As temperatures dropped to near-record lows Sunday, electricity operators warned that demand could overwhelm the state’s power grid and force rotating power outages. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, emphasized the need for Texans to reduce energy consumption. “We are experiencing record-breaking electric demand due to the extreme cold temperatures that have gripped Texas ... At the same time, we are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines ... If power reserves fell too much, an...

(Editors’ note: This column is co-authored by NCPA Research Associate Luke Twombly) The second presidential debate might mention that a Russian state newspaper predicted direct confrontation with the United States over Syria. Neither candidate will probably note that the escalation comes as solutions to protect America’s frighteningly vulnerable electric grid system languish on Capitol Hill. Each should be reminded that an increasingly popular target for U.S. adversaries sits largely unguarded. Thankfully, Texas can take the lead. As the only state with a self-contained grid, Texas finds itself in a remarkable position to protect the nation by protecting itself. The primary...

In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, the mighty state of Texas was asleep. The honky-tonks in Austin were shuttered, the air-conditioned office towers of Houston were powered down, and the wind whistled through the dogwood trees and live oaks on the gracious lawns of Preston Hollow. Out in the desolate flats of West Texas, the same wind was turning hundreds of wind turbines, producing tons of electricity at a time when comparatively little supply was needed. And then a very strange thing happened: The so-called spot price of electricity in Texas fell toward zero, hit zero, and...

The Texas electric grid operator extended its call for residents and businesses to conserve power until Tuesday morning as a late arctic cold front that barreled as far as South Texas boosted the state's electricity consumption to a monthly record on Monday. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state's primary grid, had issued a public call for conservation on Sunday evening, citing freezing temperatures that would strain available generation capacity. "With the continued cold weather, we expect conditions to remain tight, especially during the early evening tonight and early morning hours tomorrow," said Dan Woodfin, director of system...

Despite the nice suits and formal setting, Texas state senators are using today’s public hearings into the statewide blackouts earlier this month express their anger over the situation. While questioning the heads of ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission, Troy Fraser, chairman of the Texas Senate Natural Resources Committee, said the outage of up to 82 power plants “is unacceptable and we should have been prepared.” Several senators seemed incredulous that so many power plants went down in conditions that are routinely faced by plants in other parts of the country. “If a pipe busts in my house, I know...

Texas’ main electric grid operator has already begun to make changes in how it will handle situations like the Feb. 2 power emergency that led to rolling blackouts through much of the state, according to the organization’s CEO. An e-mail alert system designed to warn of escalating problems didn’t reach all the parties that it should have in time, partly because the emergency came to a head overnight, said Electric Reliability Council of Texas CEO Trip Doggett in a presentation to the ERCOT board of directors today. You can look at the presentation here. The warning system now includes more...

WICHITA FALLS — The electric grid operator for Texas is urging consumers and businesses are encouraged to reduce their electricity use during peak demand hours over the next few days from 6 – 9 a.m. and 4 – 8 p.m. to help reduce the risk of electricity emergencies or the need for rotating outages. “The National Weather Service is anticipating severe cold weather statewide this week, as another arctic air mass is expected to reach deep into Texas, dropping temperatures back into the teens and twenties,” said Trip Doggett, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. "In anticipation of...

As was discussed on the February 2nd edition of Pratt on Texas, the ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) rolling blackouts across the state could have been prevented with better planning and policy. Electrical engineer, Ross Aten, joined Robert Pratt to talk about how too many coal and natural gas power plants within ERCOT were taken offline for maintenance. Ross also explained that if you, ‘ran the numbers’, the only way ERCOT could have met peak winter demand usage is if wind energy across the state was producing at significant totals. However, because of the ice storm and lack of...

Mexico supplies electricity to wintry Texas MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Mexico's state electricity company on Wednesday started supplying electricity to the US state of Texas, where demand shot up amid unusually cold temperatures and caused power outages. Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission "was determined to support Texas with electrical energy faced with the problems the state is suffering due to climatological conditions," a statement said. An energy transfer of 280 megawatts began at midday (1800 GMT) via the north Mexican border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Piedras Negras, it added. Texas Governor Rick Perry said in a statement that power...

... At the heart of the battle [between the wind and natural gas industries] is a fight over the vicissitudes of wind itself. The wind industry argues that since it can't control when the wind blows, it shouldn't be held to the same rules that require everyone else to make payments when they fail to deliver promised power. The natural-gas generators say everyone should operate under the same rules, and lament that wind's success is merely coming at the expense of another relatively clean energy source. ... Every evening, grid operator Ercot forecasts how much electricity Texans will need the...

The state's main grid operator says Texas set a new winter record for electricity use, hitting 55,856 megawatts between 7 and 8 a.m. today, beating the old record by almost 5,500 megawatts. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, said the region first beat the old record last night, between 7 and 8 p.m., when consumers used 52,001 MW. The previous record of 50,408 MW was set Feb. 16, 2007. The record isn't exactly official as it's based on some data estimates that won't be finalized for several months. "The ERCOT grid has not experienced any major operational issues during this...

The state's electricity grid operator remains "at high risk of future financial malfeasance" unless major changes are made, the Texas comptroller said Monday. In a letter to lawmakers, Carole Keeton Strayhorn called for the creation of a fraud task force to oversee the use of contractors and other expenditures at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. ERCOT oversees the flow of electricity through most of the state and directs a $27 billion deregulated power market. Though ERCOT has been implementing new policies, Mrs. Strayhorn said her office's recent review found irregularities in contracts and reimbursements for companies doing millions of...